Defining titles
by LeighJ11
Summary: They fuck, but no more than that. Daryl and Beth have a relationship, just not a standard one. Weird, complex, but it doesn't have to be.
1. Chapter 1

Beth whimpers against her clenched teeth as Daryl shoves a little harder than his usual measured thrust, her hips aching with the stretch of his thick cock. He groans in her ear but otherwise keeps pumping, braced on his knuckles over her back and his hips pressing into the flesh of her ass. He's usually a little more reserved than he's being tonight, but even still there's no kissing or touching in any other sense of the word, bar his dick buried in her cunt. It's a little absurd that this man gives her mind blowing sex nearly every night, as he is tonight and yet his lips and his fingers don't linger where it's unnecessary.

They don't kiss and then work up to fucking. Not on the lips or the throat or any bare skin. Honestly, it's a little complex trying to decide what it is about Daryl that gets her wet to begin with. His rugged, handsome looks are a given and so are his bulging biceps which he bares to her appreciative view often and she's pretty sure it's because he knows she likes it. But possibly, apart from his face and his body, it's the way he looks at her, his eyes intense and yet narrowed in contemplation in the exact same moment and it does something to Beth, something she can't describe.

The closest she's come to understanding it is that he looks like he wants her and yet he looks terrified by her in the same instance. Sometimes it feels like she's caught him debating something, his eyes on her. She likes to pretend that he's wondering about bending her over and fucking her, but he's also a little worried about her reaction to that or even his own reaction to it as if he'll like it too much. No doubt that's not what he's thinking when she catches him, but she likes to pretend. Overall, they're complicated. They fuck but they don't touch and they share intimacy but they leave each other practically as soon as they've both cum.

Even now, with his body braced over her and his hips plummeting, his cock driving into her squelching pussy over and over again, he's not touching her where he doesn't need to. His hands are by her hips, braced on his knuckles, his head is way above hers and his stomach isn't pressing into her spine at all. It doesn't make a difference to his performance, not at all because it's still out of this fucking world. But Beth knows it's weird and she knows that it's complex too, that they never kiss or touch beyond taking each other's clothes off.

There's also no cuddling or sleeping over. Mostly she assumes it's because he doesn't want a relationship with her or a relationship in general, but that's fine because the sex is amazing and honestly, she's not sure if she wants a relationship either. After all, it's the end of the whole damn world. No one wants to make attachments, no one wants to love anybody and without admitting it out loud, everyone alive today is burdened by the bonds they bear to their loved ones.

Every damn day she's thankful that her daddy survived the bite to his leg, even if he lost it and that she still has Maggie, even if she doesn't have her mama and Shawn or Patricia and Otis or even Jimmy, but she does feel tethered by them, knowing their death would kill her.

So yes, it's weird, it's complex and they should probably talk about it at some point, deal with it, define it, but right now, Beth is just enjoying the aching pleasure in her cunt, Daryl's breath against her neck and his quiet pants as she clenches her teeth and cums all over his cock, her pussy walls fluttering. Above her, Daryl curses darkly, pulling out to spill all over her ass cheeks in thick, hot ropes that never fails to make her moan into the sheet beneath her. There's something about it that's so damn erotic to the point where he's cum on nearly every part of her body… except for her face.

"Shit girl, gets better every time."

She grins to herself where he can't see, relaxing her body into the sheet. Daryl follows in after her, his hips resting more into her ass than usual and it's a warm, comforting weight that makes her eyes droop.

"Yeah," she murmurs in agreement, almost sluggish.

He makes to move but she hums under her breath is disagreement and he stays. She only plans to stay for a little while, rest her eyes, but quite suddenly, she's boneless and her eyes sting and they're closing, her breaths evening and it isn't long, despite telling herself to get up and get dressed and leave, that she falls asleep.

* * *

Beth opens her eyes and the first thing she determines is that she's overbearingly hot. She's not sure why because she's naked and it's dark and she can also feel the sheet tugged sharply over her hip, baring her breasts and her whole upper body to the cool air. She frowns into the darkness because she can barely see, but she's pretty sure she's not in her own cell. Just as she's making this half-conscious realisation, she's suddenly aware of the source of the blasting heat, which is thick arms branded around her waist.

Daryl's thick arms.

Not just cuddling her either, but holding her, tight enough that all his heat is her own heat, bleeding into her skin and returning buckets of sweat and slick limbs. Beth wiggles gently, trying to worm her way out of his arms so she can dress quietly and leave. They don't do this: cuddle and act like they're anything more than what they are, but the cuddling isn't really a problem. It's the fact that she's naked and that she fell asleep, her chest out too, nipples hard and ready to be spotted by any passer-by.

A whole number of people could have come in and seen them sleeping together, which isn't really explainable but is most definitely a better option than trying to make shitty excuses for why she's naked as the day she was born and judging by the feel of Daryl, half naked. The cuddling is the least of her problems, so she puts more effort into trying to get free. In his sleep, Daryl only clings tighter and she has to forcibly grip his forearms and pull them apart to slide her legs under her and sit up on the edge of the bed.

The movement is too abrupt for Daryl though because he comes awake all at once, his hand clenching around her wrist. Beth glances over her shoulder at him with a reassuring smile. She knows what it's like to wake up so suddenly, nothing really running at full function but adrenaline pounding through her blood stream and ready to help her kill walkers, so she's patient with him as he comes fully too and slowly releases her wrist, lying back on the sheet and staring at her nude body in the dimness of the cell.

"Hey," she whispers. "Sorry I fella sleep."

He ducks his chin, still looking sleepy. "S'alrite."

She bends as she talks, scooping up her panties and t-shirt. "Gonna head back 'fore anyone sees us."

Daryl frowns but he says, "see ya tomorrow?"

Beth grins. "Yeah. Same time."

When she's dressed and leaves, she has a small smile on her face because she keeps thinking about his frown, like he didn't want the fact that she was in his bed to be a problem and so, with the cuddling and the sleeping too, does that mean she can start touching him more in bed? She's keen to find out and when she slides into her own bed, there's butterflies in her stomach.

* * *

The next night, she's bold and the minute she enters the cell, she grabs Daryl by the back of his head, stretching up on her tip toes and kisses him. He goes still at first but then he responds, hesitantly, like a first timer which possibly he is. She's kissed boys before, but Daryl's not a boy and kissing him feels different.

It's a good different, a _really_ good different and unbelievably when she opens her mouth and swipes her tongue out, there's a wet trickle of heat in her cunt, from his kiss alone. The longer the kiss, the better it gets, despite the wet mess they're making and a pulse of excitement pangs through her when he suddenly grips her hip and slams her against the wall.

 _Shit._

Why is this so much better already? The way his fingers are digging into her waist, the insistence of his questing tongue and sometimes nipping teeth, it's intoxicating. He's got her wet before of course, but usually, it's the things he says, the gravelly pitch of his voice and the way he looks at her, his eyes all the touch she needs. But this is something else, the mess between her legs and the heat sparkling across her spine like driving needles. The pressure of the wall behind her and the pressure of Daryl at her front, his whole body melting with hers, it's surreal and Beth's panting with excitement.

Reaching forward, she grips his belt and tugs at it, trying to pull the loops. He grunts, his lips slipping and his teeth rescuing, catching hard on her bottom lip. A sharp bolt runs through her, exploding in her clit and her eyes fly open. He's looking at her. Wide, bright eyes lancing through her whole body and there's this feeling, this unreal feeling through her cunt like she's cum, a rush of fluids in her panties. She groans and he groans back, pressing her, somehow, even harder into the wall. Shit, she can't cope like this anymore.

With their eyes still connected and her lip still tugged out, Daryl's teeth and lips working at it, Beth undoes his belt and tugs his jeans open, freeing his cock. His eyes sparkle and he releases her swollen lip with a pop. God, why didn't they touch before? They were missing out on so goddamn much. Now he seems to be making up for lost time because his hands are roaming her whole waist, burning her straight to the bone, fingers rough and hungry on her flesh. Even when her top comes up and her jeans off, he won't stop touching her.

His fingers and palm strokes every inch he can reach, sometimes locking around her and squeezing like he's making sure she's real. It's so erotic, the way she feels so wanted by him and it isn't long before she gives into the need to blow his mind and therefore drops to her knees to suck his cock. Before, she would just suck him off, grip the base of his dick. Now she strokes over his hips and thighs with her hands, greedy with him like he was with her. She uses only her mouth to get him off, the power of her jaw and the suction, like a machine. Daryl's loving it, she knows because he's gripping her head, shoving her down, squeezing her cheeks.

He never touched her like that before. Used to brace his hands on the wall instead and use his hips. She thought that was hot, but this is so much better and she's so high strung that she fucks herself with two fingers, vicious and fast the way Daryl is and when he cums, he marks the final spot of her body, granting her wish and cumming over her face.

Like a little slut, she sits on spread knees, fingers driving into her cunt and her face smeared with his cum. Despite this, she asks, "can I stay tonight?"

He laughs breathlessly, squeezing the last drops of cum out of his cock. "Lookin' like that? Girl, can do what the fuck you want."

* * *

So it begins.

After he cums on her face, she stays and they cuddle. Silently, not defining it, not giving titles, but they cuddle and then she leaves before dawn, a smile on her face. Because she's starting to wonder: maybe it isn't that he doesn't want to kiss and cuddle, but maybe he's just never done that with a woman before. Maybe there was never a woman out there that just wanted to cuddle him, something as simple as that. But it could have even been his own decision because he's a little shy, a little reserved and maybe he doesn't like to presume and be all over a woman like a rash.

Maybe they've never kissed and cuddled before because he was being polite, despite making her scream his name. Soon after that, they get more physically affectionate. She kisses and cuddles him even outside of their 'sex hours' pulling him behind walls when no one's looking. A lot of those times they kiss forever, his hand on her waist and his body pressing her into the wall, but sometimes, his hand shoves under her waist band and he fingers her with a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

With more affection comes more eroticism and Beth starts to wonder how the hell she ever enjoyed their meet ups without the clench of his hand and the give of his mouth. For a while, it's just her initiating it and then it's him and Jesus _God_ , it's so fucking hot when it's him. When he sneaks up in the shower and wraps his hand around her throat, then proceeds to bend her over and fuck her silly. It isn't long before that insecurity and anxiety melts away, leaving behind nothing but casual touches and snuggles during the night. They still haven't defined it, still haven't given it a title and it's fine because the sex is great, but it's even better when he's kissing her at the same time that he's fucking her.

It isn't long until the definition falls into place and one night, when he's buried inside her and cumming, bare and reckless, he whispers, "I love you, girl, shit, I love you."


	2. Chapter 2

"So, when're you gonna tell daddy?"

Beth looks next to her at her older sister, both of their hands and arms working together to fold all the laundry. "Tell daddy what?"

Maggie smiles, slow and calculated. "Oh, y'know… that you're with _Daryl_?"

Beth flushes; her stomach heaving violently. "What're you talkin' about?"

Maggie snorts and drops the sheets back into her lap, hands clenched around the fabric and the band of her ring startling under the high afternoon sun. "Don't, Beth. I'm your big sister, I can see it. You two been dancin' 'round each other for weeks. Been a flush in your face you only get when you're in love." She pauses and grins harder. "An' when you're gettin' good sex."

"Maggie!"

"What?" Her sister laughs. "Am I wrong?"

With a burning face, Beth shakes her head. "Ain't you bothered?" She dares to ask.

Maggie's smile fades a little and there's a more serious quality to her voice. "I was, an' I was kinda mad too, for a while." She stops and looks at the sheet in her lap before she starts folding it again. "But I didn't know why, 'cause I know Daryl, an' he would'a never done somethin' like this. You gotta be special to him Bethy, 'cause I don't think it sits right on that man's conscience."

Beth frowns and resumes folding too. "How'd you know?"

"I watched you two," Maggie replies with a little nod. "I saw the way you look at each other, but he looks terrified by you too, Beth. Like he don't wanna be that guy but he can't stay away."

Beth smoothers a smile, hugging the sheet to her chest and stopping once more. "He said he loves me, Mags."

Her sister smiles at her, the sun warming her whole face. "You say it back?"

The smile struggles now as Beth shakes her head. "I wanted to, words just wouldn't come outta my mouth."

"Why not?"

Beth shrugs, finishing the sheet and putting it aside. "Scared. Look at what we live in. Scared to even love you an' daddy, let alone everyone else, an' not that much. You blame me?"

Maggie shakes her head but she's still smiling when she says, "it's worth it, Beth. Every terrifying second of it."

Beth bites down on her lip and nods, her decision made.

She has to tell him.

* * *

Why is she so beautiful?

Daryl nearly turns his face away from the sight of Beth coming down the corridor, straight towards where he's standing at the library doors. It's been nearly a week since he told her he loves her, buried deep inside her and spilling his cum until it flooded her pussy and dribbled down her inner thighs.

Nearly a week of staring at this goddess he's fallen in love with and wondering what the hell he did to ever deserve her. Sometimes, when she looks this stunning, caught in a ray of sunshine or a beam of the moonlight, he wonders what evil atrocity he did in a past life to deserve the agony he feels when he looks upon her shining blue eyes.

From day one he wanted to touch her. Lay his hands and lips upon her flesh, but he had no rights, not one because she was ethereal; mystical. He was just a human, a brain and heart and lungs all clumped together in a useless, scarred sack of meat. Her beauty wasn't the only reason for his pathetic resistance to not lay a finger on her.

The biggest reason, he thought for a long time, was the most obvious one. Daryl was pretty sure he was just convenient to her. Fingers and a cock to get her off, fuck her until she was screaming and biting down on the palm of her own hand. Surely, Beth Greene didn't want a man his age to touch her beautiful, unmarked flesh?

Surely, she didn't want a man with his rough, ruined hands and calloused fingers to stroke her skin? But he didn't mind or rather, he learned to live with the idea because he was just so damn happy to be allowed the privilege of gazing upon her nakedness. Not just her body or her bare cunt, but the raw ecstasy on her face and in her eyes, wide and honest.

When she sees him, she hurries and it makes something like excitement explode through him, except her face is twisted and scared and that makes his throat close tight and his head rush with blood, wondering who the fuck he has to kill.

* * *

"What's wrong?" Daryl whispers quickly, his voice hoarse.

Beth shakes her head, looking around for any prying ears. "Nothin'. Listen," she cuts in before he can speak, her voice rushed and urgent. "I have to tell you somethin', soon an' I will, but first, I need you to get me summin'. Please, Daryl."

There's a frown on his face but he nods quickly, pulling her closer with his hand on her lower back. "'Course girl, tell me, what is it?"

She lowers her voice and rests her hands on his stomach, her heart pounding against her ribcage. "A… a pregnancy test."

He blinks and then he laughs a little under his breath, the tension leaving his eyes. "Jesus, girl, scared me half to fuckin' death. Maggie an' Glenn slipped up again, huh? Told chinaman to be more careful."

It's possible her heart might crawl up out of her throat when she murmurs, "s'for me, Daryl."

He stares at her and all she can do is stare back, rooted still with terror.

"Oh."

* * *

He's messed up.

He's messed up so _bad._

How the fuck could he ever excuse cumming in her?

He's a fucking prick and he knows it. There's no way she's going to want to have his baby, no fucking way and he'll have no rights to tell her otherwise, no matter how much he would like to see a child stretching her belly. Yeah, it's not something he really thought about, it's not something he truly wants to do, not in this world.

Raising a child? Fucking stupid. Suicide is a better word. It could go wrong in a thousand and one different ways that would tear his heart from his fucking chest. Lori… just thinking of Lori… Rick's face when Maggie came out with Judith in her arms and blood all over her, Carl's traumatised eyes as he told his dad that he'd shot his own fucking ma.

No, Daryl wouldn't survive that. If he lost her; if he lost the baby; if he lost _both_. God, no, he can't. There's no way on this fucking Earth. He'd lose it, just like Rick and it would be a karmic fucking joke because Daryl was the one who thought Rick needed to get his ass back into fucking gear but he would finally know exactly what Rick's insanity felt like.

So yeah, he knows it's damn stupid to want it. He knows the risks and the cons and everything that could happen if it all went wrong, but he can't stop himself from wanting it. Except he knows it's one sided because Beth's face was as white as a ghost when she told him that it was her who needed the test.

So, he goes out first thing. Doesn't tell anyone anything, doesn't take anyone with him and doesn't answer everyone's confused questions, even though he feels bad for worrying them, especially Carol. There's no other way to do it though because he has no fucking clue what to tell them.

 _I might have knocked up the seventeen-year-old girl I'm in love with, who hasn't said it back and who certainly don't want no Dixon baby in her belly._

He doubts that's going to go down well, especially not with her daddy, who would beat Daryl's ass with one leg as good as if he still had two. So when he goes, he doesn't just pick up a bagful of pregnancy tests, he picks up pills too. Same ones Glenn told him about when Lori had the same, painstaking reality check thoughts as he's having now.

When he goes back, he empties the bag on Beth's bed and she looks up at him with huge eyes. "There's gotta be like fifty boxes there, Daryl."

"Gotta know, right?" He says hoarsely, struggling to even fucking breathe.

The fact of the matter is: he's terrified. Scared that she is and scared that she isn't because she'll want to get rid of it and it's going to break his fucking heart but he can't say shit because it's all his fault. He cum without asking her and he said sorry after but now she's missed a period and his child is probably starting to grow inside her.

Daryl's not sure what outcome will be worse. To know there's something in there she plans to kill, something that's part him and her or finding out there was never anything there to begin with, but being left with the knowledge that he wanted there to be.

He wants it so bad.

Beth sighs and picks up three with a wobbly smile. "This should do it." When she makes to leave he goes to follow and she stops. "You're gonna come with me?"

Daryl frowns. "Why wouldn't I? S'my baby, Beth."

She flushes and it's not so much an embarrassed blush but almost… pleased. "I meant seein' me pee."

He snorts. "Afta all the times I been in your pussy? Had my tongue in there? You really care that I'm gonna see you do somethin' every other human does?"

Beth's mouth opens but she sighs, giving in. "Suppose you're right. C'mon."

Again, he follows her, walking to the toilet with no one stopping them. She still looks uncomfortable so he doesn't directly stare at her, but he hears her jeans and the rustling as she pisses on the three sticks separately. After she washes her hands, she comes to stand next to him and lays the sticks out on the counter, face down.

"How long we gotta wait?" He murmurs.

She looks up at him and he startles when her fingers loop into his. "Couple minutes."

A terrified silence descends upon them after that and in those compressed minutes Daryl watches several different outcomes behind his eyelids. Fucking finally, Beth takes a deep shuddering breath, squeezes his hand and reaches forward to flip all of the tests over, one by one in rapid succession.

They take a combined step forward and the wind sails right out of him when he sees only one line on all of the sticks.

Together they mutter, "negative."

Daryl's heart flips at Beth's tortured voice like she's holding back tears and his eyes swing around to her, finding a crystallised tear upon her cheek. "Shit, girl. What's wrong? Ain't you happy?"

She glances up at him, her eyeballs practically glass and downright mesmerising. "I should be. This isn't normal, right? Wantin' a baby in this mess?"

Fuck, he has no words and he's trying so hard but they're blown out of the water when on a hiccupping sob, Beth says, "I love you, Daryl. I _really_ love you."

The world crashes in around him and he doesn't mean to but he squeezes her hand so hard. He thought this was going to be a one-way thing. Him loving her and wanting her to be pregnant, but now she's blown his world apart because with her words and her tears she's told him how much she wants the same things as he does.

No one's ever told him they love him. Not his dad, not Merle, not anybody. Maybe his ma, when he was young, but it's too fickle and flimsy, like a dream. This though… this is real. This is solid. It's something he's secretly always wanted and yet, it terrifies him because he knows she means it.

There's no way she can fake that look in her eye, that raw honesty shining up at him. But even knowing how truthful she's being, it still takes so much sluggish time to try and wrap his head around the fact that she actually wants _him_. He's wanted her for so long and he's had her, but he never thought she felt that way, not once.

There's no words for him, so he just stares, until somehow, he churns something between his teeth, something hoarse and disbelieving. "But… _why_? You're… you're _you,_ girl an' I'm me. Dirty fuckin' Dixon."

Beth smiles and even with tears running down her face she stretches on her tiptoes and kisses him, pulling away after a moment to speak against his lips. "I've loved you for so long, I was just so scared."

He understands fear. He understands the fear of someone's perfection because that's how he feels about her, all the damn time. "You ain't sayin' it 'cause I did? Or 'cause of this?"

He expects her to be mad at the accusation, but she's so fucking patient with him that she just shakes her head. "I'm tellin' you 'cause you deserve to know. You're the best man I ever met, an' you deserve to know."

There are no words, for women like Beth Greene.


End file.
